'Legion' recap: 'Chapter 11'

Now we’re in the sunken place…

The third episode of Legion season two, titled “Chapter 11,” gets weird. Yeah, they’ve all been pretty weird up to this point, but this one gets really weird.

We start with some more Jon Hamm narration that instantly starts the tone. We’re told that a person can physically alter their body just by thinking about something — if you believe that a certain liquid is going to make you throw up when you drink it, then you’re body will actually do so.

“If the idea of illness can become illness, what else does that say about our society?” Hamm asks.

Cue a bunch of television screens that are showing current events and that ever so clever Legion title card.

Then we head into a flashback — one that shows the real Farouk when he was an actual human and not an entity in David’s mind. At least, we see that as a second, as this flashback shows the separation of Farouk’s soul and body: which has so far been the whole point of this season. We learn that Farouk’s body is buried in a white coffin, underneath some ministry full of monks.

And speaking of monks, we left off last week learning that the monk — the only living person who seemingly knows how to find Farouk’s body — is hiding somewhere in Division 3.

The monk has also apparently learned that Division 3 knows this because now he’s on a mission to not get captured at all costs. He breaks out of the room full of teeth-chattering and begins his assault on the building. You know, because the assault in last week’s episode wasn’t enough and Division 3 apparently still has more bodyguards to spare.

This time, instead of turning innocent bystanders into fish, the Monk puts them all into teeth-chattering mode — confirming he is the one who’s been doing that this whole time.

David isn’t there for the monk’s attack. Instead, he’s back in his swimming pool, talking to Farouk. They more or less re-enforce the idea that they still have a deal (again), all while Aubrey Plaza’s Lenny is desperately asking for David’s help and trying to escape in the background. It’s really quite a chilling moment, as we’re reminded of just how ruthless the Shadow King can be.

The interesting bit of information in here is that Farouk calls out David’s father. This isn’t the first time David’s lineage has been brought up, but we get a few more details. Farouk calls him a “white man unfamiliar with his nation’s customs.” Fans of the source material will know that, in the comics, David’s father is actually Professor Xavier. While Legion feels completely separate from everything else X-Men related, is that what they’re setting up here?

Certainly, it’s a possibility, but we don’t know for sure yet. Anyways, David leaves his pool to find everyone missing and the entire station in code red. The one person he can find is Cary (guy version), hiding out in the food court — after all, Kerry is the fighter between the two of them.

The two quickly run into Ptonomy stuck in teeth chatter mode. In order to free him, David gets the brilliant idea to take Cary with him inside Ptonomy’s mind. They find him pretty quickly upon arriving, but he’s definitely not himself: he’s simply sitting in a garden, picking flowers (with a hella good-looking flower suit on, I might add), without a care in the world.

Ptonomy’s on a loop in which he forgets everything after every five seconds — a fantasy for him, as Cary puts it, as he’s normally cursed to remember everything. David does some weird mind-bender stuff with his fingers to snap him out of it, and the three then return to Division 3.

Oh yeah, there’s also a random cow in the room every time they come out of everyone’s mind. I couldn’t tell if there was actually purpose for this or if it was just a funny gag (one of Cary’s lines about a cow being in his lab made me giggle), but it’s there and might be important?

Next up is Melanie. Inside her mind, the trio finds a text-based video-game in which David must control. Melanie’s reality is to be controlling, Cary says, so they have to play by the rules of her game in order to find her. The only problem is if they wait long enough to figure out where to go or what to do, this minotaur from hell creature shows up.

David once again cracks the code, typing in a story about a woman who is carefree — which is all Melanie has ever really wanted. The four of them then head back to Division 3, once again being greeted by that damn cow.

Now all David wants to do is find Syd. He’s figured she’s entered teeth-chattering mode at this point — receiving strange visions of her spelling out the word ‘HURRY’ — and wants to get to her ASAP.

First, though, he comes across the monk. The Monk is hiding out in the room with good ole-bucket head, having taken control of one of the mustached ladies. The monk says that he wants a weapon to destroy the Shadow King, which is eventually revealed to be David.

David then jumps inside the monk’s mind and sees the place that we saw in the flashback. Now, he knows where Farouk’s body is. The monk begs him not to help Farouk, but David’s mind has already been made up and it looks like he’s going through with this. With no other option, the monk decides to just jump off a building instead. Clearly, he doesn’t want to be around for whatever is coming next.

Meanwhile, Cary found Kerry frozen with her teeth-chattering, and he was pretty devastated about it. You know, because he kind of freaks out when anything happens at all. David’s not around so looks like Kerry is stuck like that for the time being. Given how dependent she is of Cary, I have a feeling that her mind prison isn’t going to be a very pretty place either.

We end it with David also finding Syd in teeth-chatter mode. He enters into her mind, only to find a wintery landscape.

And we cut to black. At least two of our main characters are still stuck in their mind prisons and now David knows where Farouk’s body is happening. It looks like there are some big things still in store for us in the next coming episodes of Legion.

Watch the newest episode of Legion on FX tonight, and check out our other Legion recaps by clicking here.